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McLouth, Pirates blast Cardinals

Sep 13, 2008 - 3:54 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Paul Maholm and Nate McLouth were not going to let the Pittsburgh Pirates' losing streaks carry on any longer.

Maholm was strong through eight innings and McLouth recorded a career-high five RBI as the Pirates snapped a six-game losing streak with a 10-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

Last-place Pittsburgh, which also had lost six in a row at home, was just 3-17 over its last 20 overall.

"It was a complete effort as far as offense, defense and pitching goes," McLouth said. "It was a great way to start off a homestand and finish off our last 15 games. It was a great game tonight, one we certainly needed the way things have been going the past 20 games or so."

After allowing just a double and two singles over the first eight innings, Maholm (9-8) allowed four consecutive hits to open the ninth before being pulled. He improved to 7-2 at home but won for the first time in his past five starts.

"He did a great job," Pirates manager John Russell said. "He was in pretty much in control the whole game. We were trying to get him the shutout, but that didn't work out for him. Still, that was the consistency he's shown all year, and it was great to see tonight, especially after a tough road trip. To come back home and put us in the win column is a great start for him."

Maholm, who also went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, was charged with two runs, seven hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He has allowed more than two earned runs in a game only three times since June 21.

"You always want to finish off (a complete game) when you get out there, but unfortunately, they started getting some hits and (Russell) made the right move (going to the bullpen)," Maholm said. "But early on, I was getting the ball down and getting a lot of ground balls."

McLouth notched his 25th home run, a double and a triple but reached on an error during his final at-bat, spoiling his bid to become the first Pirate to hit for the cycle since Daryle Ward on May 26, 2004.

"(The cycle) would have been neat," McLouth said. "But I'll take a 10-2 victory any day."

After Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Moss, McLouth made it a three-run lead with a line-drive, two-run homer to right field off Joel Pineiro (6-6).

McLouth drove in three more runs in the fifth with a double that just eluded the diving Ryan Ludwick in center field.

Moss doubled two batters later to drive in McLouth, and Maholm's second single of the inning scored two to make it 9-0. McLouth tripled in the next frame and scored on Adam LaRoche's sacrifice fly.

Pineiro was battered for seven runs, eight hits and a walk with four strikeouts in four-plus innings. The loss was his first since July 31.

Pineiro had streaks of retiring seven and five batters in a row - including striking out the side in the fourth - between Pittsburgh's offensive outbursts.

"It's puzzling," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "You watch him and get excited when he makes a pitch or two, and you think he's going to do that for most of the night. And then he'll throw it down the middle and get hurt. That's puzzling."

The Cardinals avoided the shutout in the ninth as Mark Johnson delivered an infield single that plated Josh Phelps. The RBI was Johnson's first in the major leagues since September 28, 2004.

The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 13 minutes by rain after a steady downpour covered Pittsburgh for most of the day. With the Cardinals still in the race for a playoff spot and rain also in Saturday's forecast, every effort was made to play.

St. Louis (78-69) trails Milwaukee (83-64) by five games for the National League wild card.

"It was a terrible game. That's really all you can say," Ludwick said. "Nothing seemed to work our way. It was a rough start to the road trip."